Priestly Formation
“The seminary is an educational family (community) established by the Bishop to offer to those who are called the possibility of living again in the experience of formation Jesus provided His Apostles.”
REGULA VITAE #7
REGULA VITAE #7
Spiritual Formation
The Seminary’s primary formation objective
is to unite the student-seminarian to Jesus
Christ. This relationship between Jesus and His
followers, between Jesus and the seminarian
is called discipleship. The disciple is the seminarian willing to accompany Christ, to be
shaped by His thoughts, to learn from His words
and be encouraged by His examples.
Human Formation
The real foundation of priestly
training is the human formation of the individual
seminarian. The ascent to the heights of the
spiritual life and the quest for holiness proper to
the priest, including also his intellectual training,
his acquisition of theological knowledge and
pastoral skills begin here at the seminarian’s
human formation.
Intellectual Formation
The only justification for the intellectual
formation of the seminarian preparing for
the Priesthood is rooted in the very nature of
the ordained ministry and in the challenge of
the new evangelization. To preach anew the
perennial message of Jesus in the Gospels calls
for a long period and process of study.
Pastoral Formation
The Priest is basically a Pastor. He is ordained
for service (ministry). Like Jesus who said that
he “did not come to be served but to serve”,
the priest is consecrated (set aside) in order to
minister. Thus all the areas and elements of
seminary priestly training, the spiritual, the
intellectual, the disciplinary, and the human
and communal formation “should be coordinated
with the pastoral aim in view”.
Community Formation
The priest is not only a man for others. He is
also a man with others. The priest is not only
a community man; he is a community builder,
because he is tasked with “the formation of a
genuine Christian Community”.
